Spiders, Spiders Everywhere Part 6

I’m not sure what Mr. Marvel has to do with Spider-Man, but they are sure milking it with this cover. The ad copy, her fighting Spidey foe The Scorpion and the disembodied heads of MJ, JJJ and Peter himself.

Continuing my Friday afternoon filler with cameos that don’t quite make the cut to be included in the  Spider-Man Complete Chronology.

After the break see such groundbreaking panels as:

• Peter saying hello!
• Peter saying nothing!
• Peter saying nothing, but thinking something!
• Peter in someone else’s book for no reason other than his Spider-Sense to go off!

Spiders, Spiders Everywhere Part 5

Fear not true believers, my obsession with the Spider-Man Complete Chronology and posts you won’t read has not wavered, just been waylayed by Convergence and Secret Wars.

After the break, check out some cameos that Spidey has made in the Marvel Universe over the years that are not significant enough to include in the reading order.

Afternoon Funnies- Disturbing Spider-Man Edition

Also known as “Watson Didn’t Want to Write an Article today and Just Dumped a Bunch of Pictures Off His Phone”.  Click on for a mild chuckle.

Slightly Misplaced Comics Hero Case Files #20: Mr. A

This is his happy face.

I am approaching this particular case file with a bit of trepidation.  Every other character I’ve used for this ongoing column has been owned by DC or Marvel.  Some were misguided, some were inconsistent, some of them sucked, and some of them were used really well at some point and then just forgotten about.

Today’s entry is about a character that I only know about secondhand, but I’m feeling philosophical about the whole thing, so here we are.  Today’s character is creator owned by Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko and has appeared only a handful of times over the years.  His name is Mr. A.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Hero Case Files #12: Element Girl

That’s her on the right.

There’s something off about a hero who is probably best known for being forgotten and then dying.

That’s more or less what happened to Element Girl.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #11: The Alpha Centurion

Imperius Wrecks!

Superhero supporting casts can oftentimes change from creator to creator.  Its not that uncommon.  Yes, some aren’t going anywhere.  Superman will always have Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White.  Batman will always have Alfred and Commissioner Gordon.  Spider-Man is going to be weighed down by Aunt May and J. Jonah Jameson for all eternity.  But lesser supporting cast members can come and go, sometimes without warning.  When writer William Messner-Loebs was working on The Flash, Wally West had a huge supporting cast of friends that succeeding writer Mark Waid decided were only sporadically useful at best and largely ignored aside from the Pied Piper.  Loebs had Wally and Linda Park say hello to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding on his last page, and aside from her and Piper, Waid built a new supporting cast made up more of various other speedsters.  More egregious would be how Judd Winick gave Kyle Rayner a gay friend, Terry, during his Green Lantern run.  At the end of one issue, Kyle appeared to die and Terry got his power ring…only for returning writer Ron Marz to come in the very next issue to see Kyle alive, well, and with the ring on the very first page, and some dialogue how sometime between issues Terry had simply returned the ring and that was that.  Terry was never seen again.

Then there was the Alpha Centurion.   No one really knows what happened to that guy.

Peter Parker Popup aPearances (Or Spiders, Spiders Everywhere 2)

Working as a photographer for a great metropolitan newspaper has it’s advantages when you’re Spider-Man.  Need to get to Florida?  Get esteemed publisher J Jonah Jameson to pay your way in exchange for a Lizard or Man-Thing exposé.  And don’t worry about the seldom asked and even less seldom pursued questions like “What is Spider-Man doing in Paris?  Hey, isn’t Peter Parker in Paris?”  A stand-in, Spider-Man suit stuffed with hay or a well timed and placed pre-recorded message that makes people thing Spider-Man and Peter Parker are not one and the same, will do just fine.  This is not a universe that can be fooled by a pair of reading glasses, but they’re not much better.

Hail Hydra! And Other Spider Related Happenings In This Weeks Comics Across The Multiversity

Continuing my seldom read (hey Johnathon!) run down of three new comics I’ve read this week.  I keep the variety rolling with Multiversity and…hmm….two Spider titles.  I really need to branch out my interests.

The Best and Worst Performances in a Superhero Movie By Oscar Winning Actors

Spared from the bottom five solely because of lowered expectations?

It’s Oscar season, and we are looking for a Gabbing Geek way to cover Hollywood’s biggest night, so today we take a look at the best and worst performances by an Oscar Winning performer while playing a character in a comic book superhero film.  Some of them were future winners when they donned the tights, others already had the Oscars on the shelf.

We are leaving out movies like Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles and other non-superhero comic films, so you gotta be a superhero property to be eligible here! So who is the best and who is the worst (and a bonus for comic completionists, the full list of every Oscar winning performer to play in the genre!)?  Let’s read on, shall we?

Watson’s Top Ten Movies of 2014!

Ah.  Now we get to the cream of the crop!  The ten best films of 2014!  Hope you enjoyed your year of films as much as I did mine.  This was a strong year for movies; both blockbuster and arthouse.  While there wasn’t an all-time Hall of Fame entry (like Dark Knight or Godfather), we did have many 5 star worthy films.   Any of these ten films would have been a worthy choice for #1, in fact many of them even flirted with the top spot during the year, but when the dust settled here was the final list.